A hosptial stay for Dada....

What a week we have had.

Last Saturday-Monday Dada was sick. She was fighting SOMETHING, we just don't really know what. She was very nauseous, but never threw up. She didn't have diarrhea or a fever. Just felt AWFUL! Her sugars were normal, they weren't really high, or really low. She didn't eat much. She just would kinda graze. But nothing normal.

Monday night, I sent her to bed with a normal sugar. She had eaten some mac and cheese for lunch and then had an apple before bed. I boosted her for her apple and sent her to bed. Daddy checked her sugar when he came home and it was in the mid 400's. He boosted her, thinking that would be ok, and then went to bed. In the morning, we checked her sugar and it read HI. (which means it's over 600)

We called the doc. The nurse said to stop using the pump and give her injections according to her sugar, which we had to check every 2 hours. She was supposed to eat and drink non diet things.....popsicles, reg pop, ice cream. Anything with sugar in it. So that's what we did. We also were supposed to monitor her ketones. Which we hadn't even thought to check b/c until Monday night her sugar wasn't high. When we 1st checked them, they read, large, which isn't good. The regular pop and popsicles are supposed to help flush out all these ketones which were built up in her body. The doc at that time wasn't so concerned about the high blood sugar as he was the large ketones. He wanted to get those down.

We followed the doc's instructions and her body started responding. Her sugars came down and by Tuesday night her ketones measured just a trace amount in her urine....which is great. We kept her home from school also Wednesday just to let her little body rest and recuperate. Wednesday and Thursday she had good days. By Thursday, she was back to her perky little self. I was so happy to see it.

Friday morning she woke up saying her tummy hurt. We checked her sugar and she was 199. She had some water and off to school we went. At 9 that morning, she came to my office to get her sugar checked. She was almost in tears saying she didn't feel well and her tummy hurt. We checked her sugar and it read HI. In less then 2 hours it had raised over 400 points. I immediately was worried b/c she hadn't eaten anything and it shouldn't have been that high. So I thought we would take her to the doc. To see if something else was causing this high sugar. We stopped at home and I by chance had her check her ketones. I wasn't at all expecting them to be any since her sugar had only been high for such a small time. But her ketones read large again. Shocked me.

We thought we might just need to take her to the ER. So that's where we headed.



Thankfully we did. We had quite the sick little girl. Dada was in DKA.

(Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a potentially life-threatening complication in patients with diabetes mellitus. It happens predominantly in those with type 1 diabetes, but it can occur in those with type 2 diabetes under certain circumstances. DKA results from a shortage of insulin; in response the body switches to burning fatty acids and producing acidic ketone bodies that cause most of the symptoms and complications.
DKA may be the first symptom of previously undiagnosed diabetes, but it may also occur in known diabetics due to a variety of causes, such as intercurrent illness or poor compliance with insulin therapy. Vomiting, dehydration, deep gasping breathing, confusion and occasionally coma are typical symptoms. DKA is diagnosed with blood and urine tests; it is distinguished from other, rarer forms of ketoacidosis by the presence of high blood sugar levels. Treatment involves intravenous fluids to correct dehydration, insulin to suppress the production of ketone bodies, treatment for any underlying causes such as infections, and close observation to prevent and identify complications.
DKA is a medical emergency, and without treatment it can lead to death.


After some lab work, they determined her sugar to be 800.

They put her on an insulin drip. Finally by late afternoon her sugars came down to mid 400's. By that night they admitted her. With high sugar, large ketones and dehydration, the hospital was the best place for her.

Saturday was spent pushing fluids to try to flush out the ketones.


(Dada taking a phone call from Brother)

In the Pedes unit they have a wonderful thing called the activity room where the kids could kinda play. The activity room director came and would bring Dada whatever she wanted. She brought her a pillowcase that she could decorate.



With the help of Daddy and some of her friends that came to visit, she had that pillowcase decorated in no time! :)



By late Sat night, she was ketone free, and off her I.V. She was thankful for that.

By Sunday morning her sugars were down to a more normal range. Before we were discharged, her Dr increased her insulin through her pump. I do agree that they probably weren't as high as they needed to be. Growing little girls need more insulin from time to time.

We have an appointment to see her Dr at the end of Jan, but I am hoping that they will move the appointment sooner. We are to call them tomorrow.


We are thankful for God's watch care over our daughter. I am thankful for Him giving us wisdom in when to call the Dr and when to know when it's over our head. I am also thankful for the friends and family who took the time to pray for Dada. We were showered with phone calls, texts and visits from people concerned for our little girl. We are blessed.

Last week, I heard this song on the radio by Mark Schultz. It's called He will Carry Me. It's playing on my playlist. I fell in love with it instantly. The words to this song would rush over me this weekend. I would think of them while I was watching her sleep, or I was worried about her high sugars. They really came rushing to me the 1st night after everyone had gone home and it was just Dada and I tucked into bed. In the still of the night, listening to her IV pushing her fluids through her veins, I heard the words....you never said it would be easy, but you said you'd see me through the storm. It is never easy to see your child sick, in the hospital and everything is out of your control. But the God that I serve saw us through the storm. To his hand I will hold tight.